The Calligrapher — Yán Zhēnqīng 颜真卿

Tang master of robust regular script; co-creator of the enduring 'Yan style'.

Tang calligrapher (709–784), master of regular script/running script — the Tang moral paragon whose upright, muscular regular script became the model of Chinese integrity in writing. Tang dynasty

Cultural Story

The "Ceremonies and Rites," the 仪礼, one of the Three Rites, laid out the bow, the cup, and the step by which a gentleman showed his 仪. The "Rites of Zhou" codified the offices that kept the realm in form. The word 仪 was the outward shape of inner order, the body made to mean what the heart held.

Common words & phrases

• 仪式 ceremony · rite
• 仪表 appearance · instrument · meter
• 仪器 instrument · apparatus
• 礼仪 etiquette · courtesy
• 仪态 bearing · deportment

Read the story behind the character

A wedding 仪式 fills the hall; the nurse reads the 仪表 on the wall. The lab calibrates the 仪器, and the host minds the 礼仪 at the door. The word still means the form and the tool — a rite, a gauge, a bearing — the outer shape of order, whether in the chapel, the ward, or the clean room where precision is everything.